Florida’s ‘Stop Woke Act’ won’t stop this prof from teaching about anti-Black racism

Marvin Dunn is not going to change the way he teaches students about Black history in his home state of Florida, despite the potential chilling effect of a new bill championed by Governor Ron DeSantis.

“I wouldn’t change one syllable in anything I teach,” said the professor emeritus at Florida International University. As it happens host Nil Koksal.

“[They] could drag me out of the classroom shouting with handcuffs. I will not change anything I teach based on DeSantis’ intrusion into my classroom.

Republican Gov. DeSantis signed the bill, known as the Stop the Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees (WOKE) Act, last year.

Dunn said that, by law, he can teach facts about historical events but cannot touch on important historical contexts, or personal feelings.

“For example, I can tell students that six black men were sentenced to death in Newberry in 1916 for allegedly stealing a pig. That’s lynching,” he said. “I can’t tell you what I felt when I saw the photograph, and we have the photograph, the six victims, lying on the ground at the feet of the white man, standing around, smiling.”

“How dare you? I taught at the university of Florida before DeSantis was born, and now he’s going to tell me what I can and can’t say to students, especially if I can’t share my feelings with him, or my personal experiences with him?”

Dunn said university administrators appear to be “burned out” by the administration’s attitude and the Stop WOKE Act. He said he expects that, since the education department has a budget lock. But he added that faculty members across the country are “deeply saddened by this, and understandably so.”

Florida rejected the proposed course

Earlier this month, Florida’s education department rejected a proposed African-American studies course developed by the College Board, saying it pushed a political agenda — three authors cited in a criticism of the state accused the governor of doing so.

The department said it rejected the course because “we want education, not indoctrination,” adding that it had no “educational value” and violated Florida law. College Board advanced placement courses may provide university-level course credit for high school students.

Dunn called the decision “destroying my sanity as a black man,” and “a huge violation of academic freedom” in the country — and perhaps the U.S. as a whole, given DeSantis’ popularity among federal Republicans.

“This is what they did – and do – in fascist regimes and autocratic regimes. They go after the press first, which is what is happening in our country, and then they go after the children. Get the children into an education regime that supports the state,” he said.

“And that’s what happened in Florida. And if DeSantis becomes president of the United States, it’s going to happen nationwide.”

Florida House Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell called the administration’s rejection of the course “cowardly” and said it “sends a clear message that the history of Black Americans does not count in Florida.”

“Imagine how boring and closed-minded it would be if we only came across ideas that we agreed with,” he said Monday.

The College Board, after a decade of development, is piloting an African American Studies course in 60 high schools across the United States. No school or state is required to make an offer after it is scheduled.

As it happens reached out to the Florida department of education for comment, but has not received a response.

Tour the lynching site, memorial

Meanwhile, Dunn has taken high school students on so-called “Teach the Truth” tours, showing the sites of some of the worst incidents of racial violence in the country.

Recently, he took her to Mims, Fla., where civil rights activists Harry and Harriette Moore were killed on Christmas Day 1951, when a bomb was placed under the couple’s home.

They also visited the site in Newberry, Fla., where six Black people, including one pregnant, were lynched in 1916; and then went to the cemetery where some of the victims were buried.

The tour is sponsored by the non-profit Truth, Education and Reconciliation (TEAR) based in Miami-Dade county, where Dunn sits as part of the steering committee.

Dunn said some of his students were in tears after the tour.

“The students have the same reaction that adults would, I think, which is to understand that this is wrong and it’s painful and it needs to be remembered,” he said.

However, he noted that the students shouldn’t be angry, nor should white students feel guilty about what happened — as some of the DeSantis administration’s statements suggest the teaching is.

“I would be very concerned if there was a student, for example, who felt so bad that he cried and said, ‘this is what my people did.’ I’m going to have that problem. We haven’t had it,” he said.

‘bring it’

Dunn does not expect that he will be arrested or prosecuted for continuing to teach the course in the appropriate manner, or to continue his Teach the Truth tour. But even so, he remained steadfast.

“I expect at least the school will be punished. It comes after me individually… I don’t expect that will happen,” he said.

“But bring it.”